i made a post a while ago highlighting the contrasts between satosugu and itafushi. with the new chapter, i see a new possibility for another contrast.

in shibuya arc before gojo got sealed, he called suguru's name, hoping that he could take his body back.

suguru did, however, his attempt was NOT successful. he did strangle kenjaku (or his body for that matter) but he wasn't able to fully take control of his body

and yet, see how, the veins in kenjaku's hands are popping (because of suguru still trying to fight back) and how his neck was bruised (from when suguru strangled kenjaku).

the thing is, suguru was already dead when kenjaku took his body, but he's still fighting back

and now with chapter 212 (major chapter spoilers under the cut)

megumi was still alive when sukuna force fed him the finger

and now megumi is sukuna's new host. like with geto and kenjaku, megumi couldn't control his body (unlike what yuji could with sukuna)

we saw if geto could take control of his body for a while with him being technically dead, it's not impossible for megumi to do that too, but with higher chances of succeeding since he's alive before sukuna made him his new host

my point is since itafushi and satosugu work so well as foils, maybe geto trying to take control of his body and failing isn't a foreshadowing of him being able to fully take back his body later on, but to megumi doing it and succeeding.

i mentioned in the previous post that where satosugu failed, itafushi succeeded and maybe this would be another case proving it.

edit: check reblogs for additional thoughts ahah 🥲

My brain chemistry was changed when I heard Megumi's VA saying "So start Saving me… Itadori"😿

Thank you Jump Festa and Akutami for this scene! My psychology also thanks you.😊😄

I'm gonna wait to see how the next chapters explain the Megumi-vessel thing to really have an opinion on it, but I can say I like what this could mean for Yuuji's character. As we saw in this chapter, he is basically ready to drop dead at any moment. With the revelation that he has to die to free Gojo, he got all he really needed. He had a clear goal and the end of his life in sight. More importantly, this death would be the best he could wish for himself, since it helps the most people. He will free Gojo, who would set an end to Kenjaku & the Culling Game and also take the majority of Sukuna down with him. In his eyes, he was born to be Sukuna's vessel. That is his role as a cog in the jujutsu society machine. Already in the first chapters, Gojo gave him the clear goal to gather as many fingers as possible and then die. Like this he could have finally completed the task he was given and even fulfilled his grandpa's wish.

But now he has lost all of that. He has no purpose, no goal, he can't be a cog anymore. This means he will have to find a new direction for his life. And he has to do it himself, he can't just act on what purpose Kenjaku, Gojo, Megumi or his grandpa give him. Of course he could still kill himself like he so clearly wants to, but that would serve nobody. It wouldn't help anybody and honestly it wouldn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things, which is something that's unacceptable to him at this point. It would be something selfish he only does for himself and Yuuji is defined by wanting his actions to matter to others, to strive to serve others even with his death. As cruel as it is, I like that he now has this freedom. He could now make these decisions for himself, he has to, but that freedom to choose what to do with his life and how to end it, came at the cost of his friend, which will only mount his guilt and the trauma he has carried with him since Shibuya. It will likely make him break down again and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here. Of course he wants to safe Megumi, the question is just how.

Maybe he will also look in his past to find out what his original intended purpose really is and why he was born. This is where Sasaki could come in again or maybe he will even meet Kenjaku. They have to meet again eventually. I don't think being Sukuna's vessel was Kenjaku's only intention for him. If that was the case, they would treat him like Uraume does, just a walking meat body for Sukuna to possess. Instead, they consistently talk about and to him as an individual and actually say in Shibuya that they are looking forward to Yuuji's development. Sukuna is always addressed seperately. In any case, I can't wait to see where this will take Yuuji's character. Akutami has paid close attention to his mental state and slow negative progression (as you see in this chapter very well), so I'm confident whatever happens, it will be interesting. In terms of character development, Yuuji is very similar to Gon, but I can see Akutami taking him even further and giving him a very different resolution.

I'd also like to say that this doesn't make Yuuji "useless". At least not in the way people use that word. That "uselessness" is the entire point. It gives him new freedom he doesn't know how to handle and is the worst thing that could have happened to him (mentally) at this point. In regards to his strength, except for the first battle in the detention centre, Yuuji never used Sukuna like that, so it really doesn't make a difference. He didn't win a single fight by relying on Sukuna. And I'm honestly glad this will likely bury the "Yuuji takes on Cleave etc" theories. I think it will be much more interesting to see him carve out his own way and methods. He has exceptional cursed energy control and there is a lot you can do with that alone.

In any case, I'm just happy this will prevent him from becoming Sukuna 2.0 and/or being killed in exchange for Sukuna to take on his full villain role.

how is gege gonna put this in the same chapter that yuji's life just got even worse blease give my boy a break 😭😭

Hey guys reminder that If gojo is getting released soon that means he is officially getting the nanami and nobara + megumi news !!! 😁😁😁😁😁

actually I think that the treatment of the main characters within jujutsu kaisen and chainsaw man reflect the harmful ideals of having to make yourself useful in order to be worthy to live very well and I appreciate the recent chapters of both of them reflecting on how people escape this idea in different ways

ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED, NO ONE TALK TO ME!

I kept getting a bad feeling because gege gave us gojo for two chapters in a row (thinking: that’s awfully nice of gege!) and huh HUH. Gege’s just reminding us that This is the man who is probably going to face and deal with all of this while losing every last bit of sanity he has left after being trapped with the spooky skeletons for weeks

so guessing sukuna as megumi will tame mahoraga and meet up with uraume to try to create a new body. that may or may not work before gojo is unsealed to fight sukuna. I can also see everyone teaming up to end sukuna to actually get angel to agree to unseal gojo in the first place

WHAT ON EARTH JUST HAPPENED IN CHAPTERS 212 AND 213?? HUH?? WHAT THE FUCK??

GOJO YOU STAY WHERE YOU ARE RN YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON

*there's a typo in the tags I meant glory not whatever the fuck 'glort' is*

Not to be an annoying But The Lore manga fan, but wasn't it literally said in text that a body being able to survive special grade curse possession was a 1 in a million chance 😐 And Kenjaku did the whole body swapsies + seduction thing to create a perfect host? Right?? So how come Sukuna can just suddenly hop into Megumi no big deal

also one more thing i need to let out about the jjk mess.

i don’t mind the what. i’m worried about the how. like sukuna doing something nasty to megumi was a given since he decided to resurrect yuuji. and like hyped up with every single time megumi did something and sukuna was like yay. i just hoped there’d be more ceremony to it? maybe there will be.

and i’m also worried about yuuji that he’s going to die useless. like i have zero hopes for him surviving this story but i don’t want it to feel that he’s worthless.

this is such a megumi and yuuji moment and like i’ve barely seen anyone mention yuuji in this. 

most of the posts reacting to this are about megumi, which is fair, but there are so many posts talking about fucking gojou in this context. poor fucking gojou.. lol.. i really don’t care. and like this constant please gojou save them, any time the other characters are down and having a bad time. really such a boring take. please keep him in the fucking box, let him out maybe when everything is done and sukuna doesn’t have anyone else to kill and is bored.

if sukuna maintains megumi’s appearance hana will push back against angel to kill him. maybe it gets angel killed even, who knows. or she will kill hana to survive.

oh how naive I was thinking it was just megumi having the worst day of his life

sukuna is a character that I'm most curious to know his story because he is very cold and calculating, he doesn't get attached to anyone and he is very proud, he said something interesting that someone he knew looked like Yuji, did he have a brother who It has the resemblance of Yuji or a friend. Why does he hate love so much, did he like someone in the past or was he not loved? I'm looking forward to his story. What do you think, thanks for his interactions with us on tumblr.

Thanks for reaching out with your question(s), anon! In my last post, I kind of touched on Gege Akutami's subtle exposition. If you've noticed, Gojo tends to make a lot of references to political figures, poets, athletes, etc. and Akutami doesn't provide a lot in the way of context clues for their importance in Gojo's blatherings, at least for, perhaps, Western audiences. Even Kugisaki and Itadori going on about baseball players is out of my purview of understanding so it's no surprise to realize that Ryomen Sukuna potentially has a cultural significance that we're unaware of.

The video below touches not only on his lore as Ryomen Sukuna but also the "calamity" surrounding the treatment of conjoined twins who were effectively tortured inhumanely by a circus owning zealot that may inform his appearance. 👇🏾

Regarding your hypothesis, the video above kind of makes an interesting supposition about the possibility of twins to your point about a brother. Especially since Ryomen may translate to "two-faced" which I feel like does not bode well for Yuji when we consider his death sentence and that Sukuna can mean "exorcism". Sounds like mutually assured destruction.

Universe wise, demonstratively, it doesn't look as though anyone who is isolatingly strong like Sukuna in his time was bound by love unless we're looking at Rika and Yuta (not quite the same circumstances) or Gojo and Geto and, in both instances, love was their undoing. It's likely why "love" is interpreted as the ability to penetrate that loneliness with a larger show of strength which we've seen in later chapters.

I also think that we're missing something significant with the regular reference to the Heian period as the "Golden Age of Jujutsu". It doesn't make the story inaccessible as not knowing hasn't negatively impacted our interpretation of the story at large but I think that we're losing some subtle nuance from being out of the know. Similarly, considering the potential that the character is based off of some combination of the above, I feel as though on a grander scale Gege Akutami won't go into too much of his background.

We'll probably get another 1-2 Heian period throwbacks specific to Sukuna to close some gaps between he and Kenjaku or Uruame and perhaps...

⚠️ Spoiler warning for JJK chapter 212.

insight into who made the little shit smile like this in the first place. I have a feeling whoever made him smirk like this could be another Big Bad waiting in the shadows.. I also think we'll get a flashback to the OG Gojo vs Zenin dispute!

JJK 213 💀

If 212 stabbed me in the heart, 213 has ripped out my guts and poured acid on them. Mother of fuck.

I say this with a measure of glee because I do love a narrative that emotionally eviscerates me.

Spoilers and thoughts under the cut

It’s long and rambling because I’m basically sorting my thoughts out.

The chapter felt pretty short this time, but there sure were some mindblowing developments: Confirmation that Sukuna can use Megumi’s cursed technique (and dial it up to eleven WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT MOTHRA-NUE); Megumi’s ideal vessel status (rejoice, sukufushi shippers, it’s now canon that Sukuna always wanted to be inside Megumi! Too soon? Sorry.); the Angel’s cursed technique in its full glory (I cannot wait to see that animated...eventually); and my boy Yuuji being made into a slightly mashed donut (I joke, but I’ve been nail-biting worried about this since I read the chapter and this will continue till we see confirmation of his survival).

The vessel business

Megumi cannot catch a fucking break, can he? I’m not convinced he’s truly gone, especially because Gege did leave that breadcrump about Megumi having the potential to suppress Sukuna. But that brings me to my major issue with this recent development: if Megumi can suppress Sukuna, it implies sorcerers who can eat his fingers and not only survive but also prevent him from incarnating exist--because what are the chances it’s just Megumi and he just happened to get embroiled in all this? And despite calling him a potential cage, Sukuna doesn’t seem surprised that this is a thing Megumi can do, the way he was with how thoroughly Yuuji caged him. In fact, he seems to have settled on the formula to get into Megumi right after realizing this. All that’s fine, but it raises the question of what, exactly, makes Yuuji special.

I don’t mean it in a “why is Yuuji the MC kinda way” because (a) I love that dude to death and am following the story mostly for him and (b) Yuuji’s emotional arcs have always been a lot more compelling than his powers (or lack thereof), and I think having Sukuna out of him, possibly permanently, is an excellent development as far as his character arc is concerned (more on that later). My issue here has more to do with Kenjaku and the implied alternations they made to Yuuji in the womb: I’d say it’s a fair assumption that Yuuji’s superhuman physical capabilities and unusually powerful ability to constrain Sukuna aren’t natural, and as much as I love the “they just wanted some dick jokes,” I’m pretty sure Kenjaku didn’t conceive and deliver a kid for shits and giggles. Granted, it would kinda suit their personality; however, plot-wise, it’d be a waste.

At the moment, it looks like, while the degree of Yuuji’s ability to suppress Sukuna is unusual/unnatural, other sorcerers are capable of hosting and even caging him. So what exactly is Yuuji’s purpose, at the narrative level and in terms of Kenjaku’s plans? Did they account for Sukuna potentially breaking free, and if they did, what was the point of making a custom vessel for the guy? And is being Sukuna’s vessel all there is to Yuuji (not as a person or character but from Kenjaku’s perspective)? I have a feeling that’s not the case, but I’d need to go reread the manga to try and see why I’m so sure Kenjaku’s interested in Yuuji beyond his potential to contain Sukuna. Either way, I’m curious how the narrative will handle it. Which brings us to--

Yuuji’s survival and future arc

Gege, please.

I am fairly sure protagonist plot armor will kick in and Yuuji will survive (and honestly, him dying at this point would feel pretty damn pointless--I’m all for major character death, but if you’re killing the main lead, make it worth it, ya know?), but fucking how? He’s naturally a lot sturdier than most people, but dude’s got a fist-sized hole in his stomach and got punched through, what, three buildings? He’s got to be on his last legs there. Yuuta isn’t anywhere in the vicinity either. Lowkey hoping for Mumjaku to pop out, but that’s mostly because I have been dying for some interactions between these two since the big reveal about Yuuji’s parentage.

Assuming he survives (he better, GEGE), I’m honestly pretty excited to see how his story will progress from here. Yuuji’s whole thing since the start has been to save as many people as he can and die a good death as a martyr, and with every new trauma the narrative has piled on him, that desire has only increased to the point that it’s now a fixation. The guy seems actively suicidal after Shibuya, and the only thing keeping him from killing himself is the fact that he can’t allow himself to die meaninglessly after all the death Sukuna caused and all the people Yuuji himself failed to save. If the plot had progressed in the direction it had been taking before Sukuna used that binding vow to fuck everything to hell, Yuuji would happily have let the Angel erase him and Sukuna. And he could have called it a good, noble death because he was dying to save Gojou and eliminate a good 75% of Sukuna’s power.

And now he doesn’t have that. His death would no longer serve any greater purpose (...assuming Sukuna doesn’t somehow hop back into him, but that’s starting to look unlikely). To make a difference and help people like he so desperately wants, Yuuji will have to live. I am dying to find out how he’s going to reconcile that with his current mindsent.

Assuming he survives.

Hana and the Angel

I’ve been seeing a lot of hate for Hana after this chapter came out, regarding her decision to rush to Megumi, but honestly, it’s perfectly coherent characterization. It’s certainly a foolish decision, but it’s a completely emotion-driven, considerably panicked one that is in line with everything we’ve seen of Hana so far. She is in no way any more well adjusted than any of the main cast. Her childhood was Trauma Central: Eldritch Horror Edition, and she fixated hard on the boy who saved her despite their paths crossing for a grand total of five seconds. Megumi clearly registered her, since that’s the only way Sukuna would know to use that memory to manipulate her, but he doesn’t even acknowledge her. And there’s no indication they’ve ever interacted since; in fact, I’m rather confused on how Hana even recognized Megumi. Or whether/how she kept track of him all these years, given there’s no indication she was a sorcerer before getting Kenjaku-ed into a coma (presumably) and then hosting the Angel. Yet, she’s convinced she’s in love with him and they’re fated. Hardly a healthy coping mechanism, but it is what it is.

If Hana had a random crush on Megumi and ignored the Angel to fall for Sukuna’s trick (which seems pretty transparent to us readers, but Hana really doesn’t know the actual Megumi enough to tell that he wouldn’t be caught dead doing that pose, sweet fuck, my eyes), it would be some shit writing, but Hana isn’t acting out of infatuation or puppy love but a nearly lifelong fixation.

And it’s probably going to get her killed. I don’t see Hana getting out of that on her own; she hasn’t noticed Stretchy Headman there, and the Angel’s warnings clearly aren’t reaching her. The only way I see this moving forward without them both dying is for the Angel to take over completely--and we know she’s opposed to that, but would she make an exception with death imminent? I hope so. Because losing these characters, especially the Angel, at this juncture would just be a waste.

Now excuse me while I go scream into the void for the next two weeks.